Steve Austin
Category:Characters | aliases = Colonel Steve Austin | series = The Six Million Dollar Man | image = | gender = | notability = | occupation = | race = | base of operations = Washington, D.C. California | known relatives = Helen Elgin Mother, alive. | status = | born = | died = | 1st appearance = | final appearance = | actor = Lee Majors }} Steve Austin is a fictional cyborg and a secret agent featured in the 1970s sci-fi/action television series The Six Million Dollar Man. He was based on a character of the same name featured in the 1972 novel, Cyborg, by author Martin Caidin. Steve Austin was introduced as a television character in the 1973 TV movie, The Six Million Dollar Man, and also appeared in its sequel, Six Million Dollar Man, The: Wine, Women and War before branching off as the main character in ''The Six Million Dollar Man'' television series. The role of Steve Austin was played by actor Lee Majors. Biography Origin Steve Austin was a pilot and astronaut who worked for NASA during the early 1970s, holding the rank of Colonel. Brash and cocky, he was considered one of the best by his peers, though he had little regard for those in positions of authority. In 1973, Steve was tapped to test fly a B-52 suborbital spacecraft. While running the plane through its paces, something malfunctioned and the craft crashed along the runway, gravely injuring Austin. He lost his right arm, his left eye and both legs were crushed, necessitating amputation. Surgeons labored around the clock to save Steve's life. He likely would have died if not for the medical genius of one Doctor Rudy Wells. A man named Oliver Spencer, who was a director for the Office of Strategic Services, offered Wells the resources required to save Austin, but in exchange, he would then become a special agent of the OSS. At the cost of more than six-million dollars, Doctor Wells and his benefactor outfitted Steve with state of the art cybernetic components, including a bionic eye, a bionic arm and bionic legs. Not only did Austin make a full recovery, but he could also perform fantastic feats of strength and speed. His bionic eye gave him visual acuity far in excess of normal men. As expected, Steve went to work as a secret agent for an adjunct of the OSS called the Office of Scientific Intelligence (OSI). His director at OSI was Oscar Goldman. Steve's missions required him to travel around the world, responding to various situations that threatened the security of the United States of America. Six Million Dollar Man, The (1973) Missions Oscar Goldman assigned Steve to serve as a bodyguard and chauffeur to a United States Air Force Major named Frederick Sloan, who also happened to be an old friend of Steve's. Sloan had developed an anti-missile defense circuit, which had been highly coveted by enemy agents. In addition to safeguarding the device's activation chip, Steve had to drive Sloan to the Red Canyon Military Testing Site. Along the way, hired guns working for Gavern Wilson secretly kidnapped Sloan and replaced him with a robotic duplicate dubbed Mister X. When the opportunity presented itself, Mister X attacked Steve in the middle of the desert and stole the activation chip. Austin used his bionic speed to chase after him and the two had a rematch in a canyon. The protracted battle proved exhausting as the robot was just as strong as Steve was. Despite suffering a slight injury to his living arm, Steve managed to destroy Mister X by impaling him with a piece of girder. The real Frederick Sloan surfaced shortly thereafter. 1x04: Six Million Dollar Man: Day of the Robot Abilities * Enhanced vision: Left eye only; could see range of distance beyond normal human capability. Acute targeting and accuracy. * Enhanced strength: Right arm only. Could lift approximately 2 tons without (or the weight of a mid-sized car) without undo strain. * Super-speed: Due to his bionic legs, Steve Austin could run faster than a normal human. Visually, this was perceived in slow-motion effects in the series as it only applied to his legs. Notes & Trivia * See also External Links * * Steve Austin at Wikipedia * * Steve Austin at the Bionic Wiki References ---- Category:Astronauts Category:NASA personnel Category:United States Air Force personnel